Science: Studies and Reports

PCWA’s Middle Fork Project (MFP) is situated in the foothills and mountainous uplands of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada range, northeast of Auburn, California. The surrounding watershed (totaling 616 square miles) contains a rich diversity of natural and cultural resources. As with any relicensing project in the United States today, technical studies must be conducted to develop sufficient information to evaluate potential Project impacts and to develop new license conditions that reasonably balance multiple resource interests.

To that end, PCWA began environmental data gathering activities in 2005. Results of these early environmental and cultural studies were included in the Pre-Application Document (PAD) as Supporting Documents (see Supporting Document F - Existing Resource Information Report and Supporting Document G, Part 2 – 2005/2006 Technical Study Reports).

The early study information was used to facilitate stakeholder collaboration on the identification of potential resource issues and data gaps. The result of that collaboration was a proposal to conduct twenty-eight additional studies to supplement the 2005-2006 data gathering effort. The technical study plans are organized into five major resource groups: Aquatic, Terrestrial, Recreation, Land [management], and Cultural. Consensus on the proposed technical study plans was reached by the Technical Working Groups, followed by approval from the Plenary. The twenty-eight technical study plans were included in the PAD as SupportingDocument H - Proposed Technical Study Plans.

PCWA began implementing the PAD technical study plans in May 2007. The information gathered during the studies can be found in the PAD Technical Study Reports (2007-2009).